International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
Culture Shock in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake”
Dr. Swathi Chikkala, Assistant Professor, Gitam University, Visakhapatnam
Mr. Krishnaveer Abhishek Challa, Student, MA English, Adikavi Nannnaya
University, Rajahmundry, India

 Jhumpa Lahiri
The novel chosen for the study, 
in this case America. The novel analyses
 reflects the dilemmas that
the mindset of the first generation and
Indians face when confronted with a
foreign culture. In this light the novel
addresses the issues of culture shock,
displacement, rootlessness, sense of
unsettling and inbetweeness, conflict in
the notion of ‘home’, nostalgia and
identity crisis of the immigrants. Jhumpa
Lahiri highlights the experiences of
Indian immigrants on a new, foreign
land. The characters carry the sense of
second generation immigrants and the
conflicts that arise out of these. While the
themes of nostalgia, culture shock and
unsettling are addressed through the
characters Ashima and Ashoke, the
themes of identity crisis and culture
stereotyping are addressed through the
experiences of Gogol and Moushumi.
being
marginalized,
experiencing
displacement and constantly searching
for new identity. The novel mirrors the
cross-cultural, transcultural experiences
of the characters who have very strong
Indian roots. And in order to escape such
estrangement the characters try to
resolve the conflict by undertaking
journey, both physical and psychological
to relate to their culture, refashion their
identities and reconcile with their true
self.
Jhumpa locates her characters in a
settled country to reflect the changes
they undergo, the cross cultural
interactions, the discrimination they face,
the difficulty in settling in the new land,
Ashoke and Ashima are the first
generation immigrants who undertake a
long journey to America in search of
opportunities and in the beginning they
find it difficult to settle there. Where as
their children, the second generation,
accept the land in which they are born as
their homeland. Though India is at the
heart of the thoughts of the second
generation, it is consciously pushed to the
back of the mind by the second
generation that identifies itself more with
the Western community. This idea is
highlighted in the novel - the naïve belief
in their American identity, which they
accept in the beginning but gradually
arrive at a juncture where they are forced
to question such definite notions,
rendering them as ‘in-betweens’. They
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
are unhappy about the way their parents
live.
It
leads
to
several
misunderstandings
between
both
generations. Gogol’s life mirrors these
paradoxes and renders him a ‘hybrid’,
placed amidst a group of women who are
strangers to her, also in a sense that they
are Americans. And here her first
impression of the Americans is voiced: :
     
unlike his parents who have a clear sense
      
of understanding of their relationship
with their home and America. While the
parents struggle to cope with the cultural
clash, isolation and nostalgia, the
children struggle with the question of
identity. It is a question of allegiance that
results in a conflicting life. The parents
are suspicious of American culture and
strive to maintain ties with India, and
preserving Indian traditions in America
means a lot to them as they will be and
      
be treated as foreigners. On the other
hand, the second generation is torn
between wanting to please their parents,
meet their expectations and also desiring
culture, social system, and yet is forced to
contemplate on his roots as an Indian.
to meet the expectations of their
American peers, and fit into American
society. It results in divided identity. This
is quite dramatically portrayed through
the characters Ashima – representing the
first generation; Gogol – representing the
second generation.
The story begins on a land foreign to
the lady in question ‘Ashima’, who is
expecting her first child. This colossal
ocassion of bringing a baby into the
‘strange’
world
makes
Ashima
apprehensive
and
sad
as
she
contemplates on her loneliness in
America. As she is in the hospital,
admitted for labour, she finds herself
 
 ( 3) And she becomes
‘Jell-O and ice cream lady’ to the
American nurses as she does not stick to
the dietary regime of that place. She feels
as a stranger among these women and is
reminded by the baby in her womb that
she is not alone in this regard. This
statement seems quite fascinating as the
baby grows up as an American, follows its
Little does Ashima expect her children to
face such severe sense of unsettling in
future as she lays in the hospital
regretting the absence of her family on
this special moment. It is the ‘American
seconds’ that tick as she endures the
labor pain, but she calculates the Indian
time on her hands, visualizing her home
in Calcutta and assuming the events that
would be unfolding at that moment as
she lays in a hospital, thousands of miles
away from ‘home’.
There
is
a
deliberate,
constant
comparison of the India ways with that of
the American. For instance, in the
beginning of the novel, Ashima compares
the atmosphere that would persist when
a child is brought into this world.
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
Ashima’s idea of the hospital is worded
thus:        

       
       
      
      
      
       
      
    

4) This sense of nostalgia stays with her
throughout. This feeling is so deep that
she retains the Indian magazine ‘Desh’
for a very long time and the letters
printed in Bengali become her source of
comfort. Her way of sustenance is by
holding on to her roots. She insists on
wearing the traditional outfit she is
accustomed to, prepares Indian food, and
attempts to raise her children with
Indian beliefs and with a sense of
community as, she comes to recognize
other Bengalis who also are hungry for
homeland.
In such a state of affairs Ashima’s
pregnancy makes it even worse as she
dreads the “
  6) She cannot bring
herself to think of raising her children far
from ‘home’ and “
        
      
 ( 6) With nothing to do but
endure the pain of estrangement she
welcomes the baby into the American
world. But Ashima begins to experience
impatience and inability to continue with
such a life with a new member in the
family. She cannot pull herself to take
care of her baby boy alone without
assistance of any kind. Since she nurtures
such a feeling she broaches the issue with
Ashoke and when he is helpless in this
issue she decides to raise her children in
the Indian way, the least she could do to
hold on to her roots.: “

       


       
      
     
        
 ( 32-33) This idea of ‘going
back’ traces their life in America as they
go back home often to visit their relatives
in India. These journeys to India become
a sort of ritual that are looked forward by
parents and detested and dreaded by the
children. These journeys are an effort to
maintain their connections with their
community and homeland.
The readers are given a glimpse into
Ashima’s life between her arrival to
Cambridge and the hospital. She arrives
at Cambridge as Ashoke Ganguli’s wife
and that marks the beginning of her
sense of unsettling and discomfort as
nothing seems normal to her anymore.
Her life takes a sudden turn as she finds
herself on a foreign land after so many
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
years of upbringing in India. And her
grandmother, back home, did not doubt
Ashima’s loyalty to her culture and so
when it is time for goodbyes this is her
reaction:     
Indian. This creates a rift between the
two generations as this sort of obsession
is not comprehended by the younger
generation. The children are forced to
live according to two contrasting cultural
     
and
      
expectations. It is this culture-clash that
transforms into a serious confusion of
cultural identity in Gogol. Defining
himself becomes a crucial issue for Gogol
where he finds himself feeling affinity to
America but at the same time his
upbringing,
his
parents’
culture,
traditions, are in complete contrast with
the place. In such a contradictory
scenario and unfavourable situation he
feels the necessity to identify himself
        
      
     
       
      
 ( 37)
The narrator’s use of the word ‘betrayal’
is an indication of the intense struggle
and fear that accompanied the first
generation immigrants and their families.
Ashima’s conflict results from the fact
that the two cultures – Indian and
American- are so different and this
subjects her to culture shock resulting in
her resignation to keep her culture alive
even in her children. To put Gogol to
sleep, she sings him the Bengali songs
her mother had sung to her. She
constantly gives a detailed description of
her baby’s developments to her family in
Calcutta: “   
     
      
        
 ( ) She strives hard to
make sure that her children also follow
the traditions and rituals that she had
learnt in India. This seems ridiculous and
absurd to her children but for her it is
the only way to retain her identity as
social
sets
of
traditions
and
according to his ideals and beliefs – as an
American. Later on though Ashima
understands that her son is leading a
very normal American life against her
cultural ideals, she refuses to admit the
same to her Bengali friends as it would
only reflect her failed
Indianising her children.
attempts
at
Another source of her discomfiture is
Language as she is extremely conscious of
her accent, as in the beginning she uses
incorrect plural forms and feels
embarrassed.
This
pain
of
embarrassment is so severe that she
compares it to the pain of her last
contraction during pregnancy labour.
Language becomes her first means of
hindrance as she finds it hard to
communicate with the natives. She feels
ashamed of herself and feels embarrassed
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
in many circumstances. This shame is
shared by her children who feel ashamed
of their parents’ accent. Gogol is
constantly aware of his parent’s accent
whenever they converse with the natives.
and a Bengali friend assuming the role of
the maternal uncle, everything is
according to the Indian tradition.
However, Ashima cannot help thinking
about the people missing at the
On the first day of schooling when Gogol
ceremony: “    
is asked his name, he doesn’t respond and
Ashoke is forced to explain that his son is
perfectly bilingual. This idea of perfection
is allusive to the parents but the children
grow up to speak perfect English like
Americans, which their Indian relatives
find amusing.
       
The sense of community is very strong
in a new land which is a sort of survival
strategy devised by the desolated Indians
in America, to feel belonged and to hold
on to the roots. Ashima understands this
need and till the very end of the novel she
maintains community relations very well.
As Gogol grows, their circle of
acquaintances also grows. These are
Bengalis who are from Calcutta and that
alone brings them closer. The family
celebrations are shared with their
Bengali friends who gradually become
relatives to each other. For instance, for
Gogol the women and men are his
honorary uncles and aunts - his ‘meshos’
and ‘mashis’. It is these ‘relatives’ who
lovingly participate in Gogol’s ‘Rice
ceremony’. And during this traditional
ceremony Ashima takes care of almost
every detail of the ceremony carefully
following the tradition. Apart from
certain slight replacements like the
melamine plate instead of silver or brass,

   ( 40) Gogol, on the
other hand comes to detest these
Community meets which do not impress
him “
     

      
      
.”  63) The same people
would not have even bothered to look at
each other in India, but here they stand
out in the American society and as they
feel strange and isolated. They stay
together within short distance from each
other and form a community to endure
their days on a foreign land. And Ashima,
unconsciously attains the role of a
mentor for the newly arrived Bengalis.:
“      

      

   


       
     
  38)
Till the end it never fails Ashima to feel
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
insecure about her Indian culture which
she aggressively tries to preserve.
It is not just better life and security
but also the immigrants are respected
among their community members for
‘achievement’. This idea is reflected when
Ashoke discusses his son’s academics:
“       
       
      

      
    
    
   ( 105) But
this is lost on Gogol, as a second
generation American citizen he does not
     
     
        



      
        
  105) He begins doing
things that would be considered
scandalous in Bengali communities and
which he would not be able to have done
as Gogol. All of this is a conscious
negation of his past life, his upbringing,
his parent’s ideals and beliefs and his
Indian culture.
The idea of “home’ looms large on the
consider these typical courses that had
fetched their parents and other Indians
minds of the characters. For Ashoke
India becomes a place where he was born
their job and respect on a foreign land.
He does not feel the need to fulfill his
community needs and expectations. As
far as he is concerned he is an American.
He is not a foreigner here and need not
adhere to those clichéd concerns that his
parents share. And when he officially
declares himself ‘Nikhil’, he does not feel
any obligation or responsibility towards
his earlier life as he has reinvented
himself. The change of name brings him
sudden liberation from all sorts of
responsibilities. As the name changes so
does his personality. With the new
identity acquired with such diligence he
experiments with his life: 


and also a place where he had nearly
died. He feels he was born twice in India
and once in America. This quiet thought,
though stated in a matter-of-fact manner,
reflects his perception of his American
identity and slightly suggests his struggle
and at the same time ease of assimilation
into the new world. Yet there are various
indications as reflected by Ashima, that
though he accepts the foreign place as his
own he never really cares to adopt its
culture. Indian culture still holds good for
him. Though Ashoke has had his
education abroad (PhD in Boston) and is
exposed to its system, he still obeys and
follows the Indian system of arranged
marriage. The same tradition seems out
of place and embarrassing to Gogol as he
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
perceives it as something unnatural. At
one instance, Gogol makes the mistake of
referring to New Havens as ‘home’ and
Ashima is outraged by this slip: 

      
      
     
( 108) Gogol in a way cannot be
blamed and Ashima cannot expect her
children to feel the same affinity she feels
towards India. The idea of “home” for
each of them is completely different.
India can never occupy the place of home
for the children. While Ashoke accepts
America as his new home for Ashima it
becomes her second home. Throughout
her life in America she sustains
displacement by visiting her past and
meticulously maintaining ties with her
community members. She carefully titles
the envelopes of greeting cards from the
address book that has all the addresses of
Bengalis residing in India and America.
She prides herself quietly for all the
Bengali addresses she has accumulated
over the years and she feels fortunate to
have shared rice with them on a foreign
land. And she allots an entire day to
reread the letters from her parents that
had been sent decades ago.   
       

      
      
   
 
       
     
    ( 160-
161)
The Ganguli family also becomes the
tool of introducing the issue the ‘other’.
The novel demonstrates how Gogol gets
the taste of racial discrimination at a
tender age. The day after Halloween
Gogol observes the name on their mail
box - “Ganguli” has been altered as
“GANG
GREEN”
and
his
embarrassment, tinged with confusion as
to why would his fellow countrymen
would attempt to humiliate him affects
him greatly. But Ashoke is unaffected by
such things. The difference in perception
is obvious as the first generation
immigrants
have clear
distinction
between their Indian and American
identities. They understand and have
come to terms with their place in the
mainstream. But the children of these
immigrants are born and brought up in
America, they begin their live from
scratch and their affinity to the place is
stronger and they tend to accept it as
something normal and natural. Hence
any kind of difference or discrimination
confuses them forcing them to reconsider
their social identity.
Even with all these feelings of
isolation and dislocation, the Gangulis
seems perfectly normal from outside.
They acquire things that are part of any
American household after consulting
their Bengali friends. For their children’s
sake they start celebrating Thanksgiving,
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
Christmas – festivities that their children
look forward to far more than the Indian
festivals of Durga and Saraswati. They
grow up like any other American child
against their parent’s wishes. Even the
unable to relate with the new culture. On
the other hand the second generation
feels none of the dilemmas and they are
open to integrate into the new culture
without any guilt or apprehension. Yet
food habits experience a lot of change as
the
they allow their kids to fill the cart in the
super market with items which they both
do
not
consume.
Whatever
the
circumstances and changes, the parents
try to retain their culture by doing what
they can like, making it a point to drive
to Cambridge with their children when
Apu Trilogy plays at the Orson Welles, or
when there is a kathakali dance
performance or a sitar recital at
memorial Hall. When Gogol is in the
highlights the problem of complete
assimilation by the second generation.
Gogol’s
experiences
represent
the
ambivalence and dilemma faced by the
second generation immigrants as they are
caught sadly in between the two cultures
that are prominent in their lives either by
chance or choice. Gogol always nurtures
the conflict about his identity and when
he grows up this rift within himself
widens and he deliberately divulges from
third grade, they send him to Bengali
language and culture lessons every other
Saturday, “
       
the Indian towards the Western culture,
ridiculing the Indian culture. However,
towards the end of the novel his change
in perception is quite evident as he
      
accepts his identity and comes to terms
with his Indianness.




     
narrator
quite
interestingly
Though the novel deals with the issues
of isolation and nostalgia, they take back
seat when issues such as the problem of
identity and cultural clash emerge
prominently. Assimilation into a new
culture is a serious issue for the first
The family visits India often. These
visits are looked forward by the parents
while the children dread them: “
      
      
       
     
( 79) The sight of their suitcases,
locked and labeled with the address of his
generation immigrants as they feel it as a
question of loyalty to their homeland. So
this assimilation is never complete and
they live an in-between life, unable to
break away from their roots and equally
father’s house in Alipore always unsettles
them: 
      
  ( 80) And once
on the plane, while the parents enjoy
      
( 65)
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
their Hindu meals, Gogol savors each
mouthful of the American food served
with the knowledge that for the next 8
months nothing will taste quite the same.
On the other hand, his parents’
      
excitement is unquestionable as they look
emotional encounter with their relatives
miraculously transforms Ashima into
‘monu’ and Ashoke into ‘mithu’ - their
true, old selves: “  

      
forward to meeting their relatives in
India, the only extended family in the
entire world. So when Gogol’s counselor
expresses his concern over Gogol missing
his classes and suggests that he can be
left with relatives in America for few
more weeks Ashima’ words sound like a
person who is holding the last bit of a
link that holds her to her real world. “
 
        
      
     
    
 .” ( 82) The family’s
      
       
       
     
      
    
 (Lahiri 79) The desperation is

quite evident.
     
Once in India the children feel odd
and strange as outsiders, unlike their
parents who feel at home. Gogol looks on
at the Indian setting with awe as he
unconsciously compares it with that of
the American: “   

     
     
    
      
    
     

      

     






81-82) All this seems unreal and scary to
Sonia who seeks refuge in Gogol, the
only other being whom she can relate to
in the strange place.
There are many such journeys in the
course of the narration that the
characters undertake, especially Gogol
that account for his transformation for
instance, his journey to the court to
change his name from Gogol to Nikhil. At
this juncture it is useful to study the
relevance of the title of the novel ‘The
Namesake’. It is interesting to note that
the writer herself was born “Nilanjana
Sudeshna” but goes by her nickname (or
in Bengali, her "Daak naam") Jhumpa
Lahiri. In past the writer has shared her
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
personal experiences concerning her
name that she in a way is like Gogol in
that her pet name inadvertently became
her good name.     
      
that their son doesn’t date, does not rent
a tuxedo for his junior prom, instead they
urge him to join the math team and
maintain his ‘A’ average. Assured by his
grades and his apparent indifference to
      
girls, his parents don’t suspect Gogol of
       
being, in his own fumbling way, an
American teenager. They don’t suspect
him, for instance, of smoking pot, which
he does from time to time when he and
his friends get together to listen to
records at one another’s homes. They do
not suspect him, when he goes to spend
the night at a friend’s house, of driving to
a neighbouring town to see  
  , or into Boston to
see bands in Kenmore Square. They do
     

       
      

     (
) While the author does not seem
to have any qualms of being known by
her Namesake, her protagonist in the
novel desperately attempts to shed his
namesake Gogol. It is his journey from
Gogol to Nikhil and then back to Gogol
that represents all the themes related to
culture issues. As a child he accepts his
name and it becomes a natural identity
for him as he answers to the sound of his
name called by his family. But as the
narrative progresses we find him as a
timid teenager who hates having to wear
a nametag on his sweater at Model
United Nations Day at school, hates
signing his name at the bottom of his
drawings in arts class. He hates that his
name is both absurd and obscure, that it
has nothing to do with who he is, that it
is neither Indian nor American but of all
things Russian. He does not date anyone
in high school, suffers quiet crushes, does
not attend dances or parties like other
American teenagers. While he suffers
silently his parents do not find it strange
not doubt his Indian roots that would
never nudge him to go against his Indian
culture and he too pretends to be what
his parents expect of him. But privately
he indulges in past time like a normal
American teenager. While on one such
secret trips with his friends, he
understands his strangeness when he
compares his appearance with that of the
other young people in the party hallway
who seem not to care or notice anything
and Gogol feels “   
      
       
       
” ( 94)
It is in this crowd that his transition
begins and he embarks on a journey that
any average American would experience.
And the first means of his change
becomes a girl named Kim, who is the
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
first girl to whom Gogol introduces
himself as Nikhil. This is the first trace of
his need for an alternate identity. And
Gogol’s feelings are mixed:   

not feel as Nikhil. Though his new
driver’s license says “Nikhil”, 

     

    
       
     
       
       
    

    
     
      (
    ( 96) and
when he shares his little secret with his
103) He cannot get rid of his name till the
end and tries to run as far as possible
friends that he had kissed a girl, he swells
in pride and doesn’t own the action as
away from the people who remind him of
his past and his name. It is in New Haven
Gogol’s but as Nikhil. This assumption of
new identity is a way of creating a new
that he starts a new life as Nikhil, where
no one is aware of his past. He instructs
self, reinventing and refashioning
himself, his identity. And so when at one
his parents to refer to him as Nikhil
when they call him at his room. When
they do as instructed he feels terribly
odd: “      
        
      (
106) Whenever he visits his parents on
the way back home the old Gogol claims
the new Nikhil. “    
       
        


      
      

     
point in the story Ashoke recounts to his
son the accident that has lead to his
name, he does not comprehend the
gravity of the situation. He sure finds
himself speechless but fails to gain a clear
understanding: “  
      
     
        

       
 ( 123)
Even after trading his name ‘Gogol’
for ‘Nikhil’, his past visits him often,
haunts him in private and the only
problem now is that he himself does not
feel like Nikhil. Even after such an effort
on his part to refashion himself he does
    
        
    
   
       
 (105-106)
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
Once he is obliged to attend a panel
discussion about Indian novels written in
English, Gogol is bored to hear the word
‘marginality’ as referred by the panelists.
This is because he does not understand or
consider himself as marginal in the
American society. In his view he is
American and nothing else. And the
discussion
rises
a
point
about
belongingness “

     
  ( 118) But Gogol does
not feel affinity to such confusion or
‘conflict’ as for him India is India like for
Americans, and not a  as it is to his
parents. He cannot read or write Bengali,
though speaks his mother tongue
fluently; his American accent fascinates
his relatives in India; lives with a pet
name and a good name in a place where
such distinctions are not made. He finds
it odd to see so many ABCDs in that
meeting whom he never noticed on
campus and whom he consciously avoids
as they remind him of his past.  
      



       
 ( 119) This may not appeal
to Gogol as he has not felt the loss of
past, what is dear to him, or what he
holds in respect. It is this sense of loss
that he comprehends only when he loses
his father. On the other hand, his parents
understand what it is to lose something
dear.
His discomfort grows when there is a
prospect of spending Christmas with
Ruth’s parents. In spite of his wish to
accept, he hesitates as that would mean
that he is required to tell his parents
about Ruth, which he has no intention of
doing as, “     
    
   
      
      
      
 ( 115)
The fact that he acts against his parents’
idea of their culture is a display of
rejection and also his inability to
completely let go of his background. This
dilemma is so strong that one cannot but
pity him. His accomplishment as he
understands is one step towards blending
into the American system and for their
parents it is the other way, one step away
from Indian culture. As he considers the
prospect of introducing Ruth to his family
he hesitates and only wishes that his
parents could accept her without much
ado: “
      
   
 

      
 (116-117) The Indian
system of arranged marriage is an
incomprehensible idea in the Western
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ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
world. And the fact that his parents could
make their relationship work in spite of
not falling in love before marriage, and
he, in spite of love and courtship that
preceded his marriage with Moushumi
     
fails to sustain any relationship, reflects
     
his own broken identity and inability to
fit into any culture completely.
      
Gogol’s encounter with Maxine makes
him realize his own limitations in his
relationship with respect to his family.
He quietly obeys Maxine, fascinated to be
a part of her family’s adventurous life,
and disregards his mother’s pleas to visit
home for Christmas. After a few visits he
falls in love with them and their style of
living. He learns many things from and
quickly assimilates into their system of
living, their routine. If he could learn so
many things in such a short period
effortlessly, why couldn’t he assimilate
himself in to their parent’s system and
culture? The obvious answer is his
conscious defiance of ‘their’ culture and
not wanting to ‘belong’ to that. The
readers can easily find the contrasting
personalities of Gogol and Maxine and
the proof is everywhere in the narration.
Where he is constantly running away
from his past, Maxine openly shares her
past and accepts herself as it is. This
fascinates Gogol as he is in conflict with
himself: “      
        
      
      

       
      

     
      

      
      
   138) And Maxine is
surprised to know certain aspects of his
life when he tells her that all his parents’
friends are Bengali, that theirs was an
arranged marriage, and that his mother
cooks Indian food everyday and she wears
saris and a ‘bindi’. When she responds
that he had not imagined him in such an
environment, he realizes that a line has
been drawn between them – not just he
and her, but between his family and the
rest of the Americans, isolating,
segregating, highlighting the ‘difference’.
Given that he has never truly
comprehended the terms of his parents’
marriage, he begins to compare the
relation that Maxine’s parents share,
with that of his own parents. He observes
that Gerald presents expensive gifts to
his wife Lydia, flowers brought home for
no reason, they kiss openly and rest on
each other’s shoulders. This physical
closeness, and open expression of love
they share is in contrast to the love and
regard Ashima and Ashoke share with
each other. Their expressions of love are
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
subtle. They communicate a lot without
many words. They understand each other
and express love in their own accustomed
way. Their parties are so different than
that of his parents’. This seems odd to
( 146) On the other hand for
Ashima it is a totally important occasion
and she spends many hours preparing the
Gogol:      
attentive to their conversations as he is
       
preoccupied with his overt awareness of
his family’s habit of not used to passing
things around the table, or not used to
chewing food with their mouth fully
closed. And when Maxine mentions that
she lives with her parents, it’s only
natural for Ashima to exclaim “ 
      
( 149) Towards the end of this
great ordeal for Gogol, as they start on
their journey to Maxine’s lake house, the

      
     
     
     
      
     
      
    
      

 140-141) He enjoys
and appreciates their family’s dinners.
However, there is a constant guilt
nagging at the back of his conscience that
his immersion in Maxine’s family is a
betrayal of his own.
There is an occasion in the novel
where Gogol introduces Maxine to his
parents at their home in Pemberton
Road. It is a sort of confrontation of two
cultures that do not share many
similarities. After a long list of Do’s and
Don’ts Gogol takes Maxine home: “

    
      
     

     ”
lunch, and her effort embarrasses Gogol.
Throughout the visit, Gogol is only half
Gangulis reciprocate clumsily to Maxine’s
hugs and kisses. Sadly this is the last
time he sees his father alive.
Things begin to change after Ashoke’s
sudden demise. The news arrives to
Ashima while she is busy writing
Christmas cards to her relatives in
Calcutta. The news of her husband’s
death hits her hard as she loses her only
link on the foreign land as he had been
the medium of her arrival here and her
motive to settle in this new place. Now,
with this reason being gone forever, she
finds herself in extreme isolation. Though
she has children in this place, it has
always been her and her husband who
always shared that sense of displacement,
shared a common past, and shared the
feeling of unsettling, which she never
shared
with
her
children.
The
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
excruciating pain of losing a family
member in a foreign land is an
incomprehensible loss and Ashima’s
experience is truly heart wrenching as we
are reminded of her words when she is
away from her she finds herself feeling
lonely once again on a strange land,
which she has occupied for so many years
and yet cannot bring herself to call as
home. It is in this period of isolation she
engaged to Ashoke – where she answers
finds a chance to make American friends
to the question whether she would be
able to fly to a distant place and live in a
foreign land away from her parents, she
says he (Ashoke) will be there with her.
Such a blind trust in a stranger and her
acceptance of the reality that for the first
time in her life she would be away from
her parents, her homeland and flying off
to a new place with a new person in her
life. So when her husband’s death news
reaches her she   
at a library where she takes up a job.
After all these years in America the
people she befriends are the women who
lead lonely lives.
    
     

      
      
       
      
      
        
       
        
    ( 169) At
the age of 48 she experiences solitude
which “   
      
 ( 161) She feels too old to
learn the skill of leading a solitary life,
which their children wave off simply
saying that everyone needs to learn to
live alone at some point or the other.
With her husband and children living far
Gogol’s reaction to the news of his
father’s death is worth noting as he, for
the first time in his life, draws a line
between himself and the American
society. His journey to where his father
resided prior to his death is a life
changing journey as Nikhil is not the
same anymore. The claiming of his past
begins then. When Maxine offers to go
with him to visit his family he says no as,
“
      
  ( 170) and the thought
that he had been partying with Maxine’s
family while his was dying in a hospital
brings back his guilt:  

      

      
       
      
 ( 171) The fact that
he had felt embarrassed when Lydia had
told him that his mother had called, all
these make him feel guilty for his actions,
which till now he doesn’t feel in relation
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
to his family. This is the beginning of a
gradual change in Gogol who comes to
accept himself. He visits his father in the
morgue
in
a
dazed
condition,
mechanically, and informs the hospital
that there is no need for any religious
services. The situation would not have
been this way if the death had taken
place in India. But in America, Indian
rituals would seem absurd. When he
drives in his father’s car to the place he
had stayed all these months, it bothers
him more than the sight of his father’s
dead face. Here he considers the life that
his father had before leaving this world.

     

      
       
       
       
   .” ( 174)
When Maxine asks him to spend the
night in a hotel rather than in his
father’s apartment he feels defensive and
protective of the empty place his father
had had occupied. Usually, he is
accustomed to obeying her and asking
her advice. But now he does not feel the
need to do that anymore and he decides
to stay in his father’s apartment not
leaving it empty as long as he is there.
Lying there in that unoccupied house,
sleepless and watching the first lights
touching the skies, he succumbs to the
deepest sleep. This is the new dawn in his
life - a new chapter begins when he wakes
up more as Gogol. Nikhil gradually
disappears from Gogol’s life.
He understands the essence of loss
and is terrified to face his mother in the
wake of his realization of the pain of
losing a loved member of the family and
the guilt that had been carried by his
parents all these years for their inability
to do anything at the loss of their
parents: 

      
    

   179) Flying back to his
mother from Cleveland he remembers the
time when his father had shaved his head
at his father’s demise. The significance of
that tradition is learnt by Gogol years
later, how it is the duty of a Bengali son
to shave his head in the wake of a
parent’s death. He ponders on his
reaction to such deep grief that his father
had experienced–  



   
       


     
      
 
     
179)
Their Bengali friends are stricken by
the bad news and the question is quite
straight and true: “  
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
      
       ”
( 180) Gogol realizes the role of
these friends whom his parents have
collected for almost thirty years. He feels
glad to have them home and it does not
seem out of place to Gogol to have only
Bengali friends. When Maxine visits the
mourning family it is his turn to feel
shocked to see her in his house among all
the Bengalis. The transformation is vivid:


    
    
      
      
( 182) When Maxine says that he
cannot possibly stay with his mother
forever and suggests him to get away
from all this, for the first time he is
confident of his own path and his coming
to terms with his life is evident when he
replies, “     
( 182) He has no intention of
escaping.
For Ashima it is different when her
friends suggest her to visit Calcutta - she
has no desire to ‘escape’ to Calcutta as
she refuses to be so far from the place
where her husband made his life, the
country in which he died. Suddenly for
Ashima this place (America) becomes a
second home, a place where she started a
family, raised her children, bought a
house, his husband had breathed his last.
This connects her to the place in a way
and for the first time she is reluctant to
escape from the loss.
The inevitable happens as he estranges
himself from Maxine, which seems like a
willing choice of Gogol. This exclusion
becomes
permanent
as
he
is
not
interested in including a foreigner in his
family list. And on the anniversaries of
his father’s birth- which was never
celebrated when he was alive- and death,
Gogol is drawn to his home, to his family
to drape a garland around the frame of
his father’s photograph. This pull also
reflects
his
realization
of
his
responsibility and sense of duty towards
his family, whom he had ignored and
avoided all these years. There are
changes in his professional life too as he
reduces his outings and partying with his
American acquaintances and friends. It is
a conscious effort on his part to isolate
himself from the mainstream as he to
terms with his identity. But his isolation
worries Ashima and at one point she even
suggests to patch up with Maxine. But
Gogol finds no interest in such a
prospect. And this leads to something
which for Gogol would have been
unthinkable.
His mother takes the initiative of
introducing him to a Bengali girl
Moushumi whom Gogol had known in his
childhood and whom he does not
remember as part of his conscious effort
not to make any Indian acquaintances.
Reluctantly he agrees to meet Moushumi
who herself had had a recent tragedy in
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
her life where her fiancé,  
      
      

 192) This is the first reference to
the girl who is introduced to the reader in
the beginning of the novel. She is brought
back to the reader’s memory with a clue
of her life – how she, like Gogol, is
struggling with her identity. Though she
openly attempts at fighting back at her
parents’ system of living, deep down her
consideration for what is Indian comes
out clearly in her failed relationship with
Graham, her fiance. The reason is
considered by the Bengali children with
some delight as she is sort of an outsider
to them. She herself does not attempt at
mingling with other children as she
carries with her, from England, the social
beliefs and notions when she claims to
narrated thus: Graham complains about
his visit to India that 
‘    73).
This ‘othering’ within the community is
hypocritical as they themselves are
outsiders in America. This is also an
occasion when the readers are intimated
of Gogol’s transgression into an
American teenager. “  
     
       

      
      
      

( 75) It is interesting to see how
    
two individuals, second generation
Bengalis, who assume themselves as
Americans, are brought together to
understand their own limitations and
experiences in a world where they always
unconsciously, unknowingly remain at
the margins.
        
      
     

        

      
( 217)
In the following pages that explain
Gogol’s relationship with Moushumi, a
glimpse is provided into her past life. She
is another character who struggles as a
second generation immigrant. A glimpse
into her double unsettling is given when
Gogol celebrates his 14th birthday. Her
family spends few years in England and
then move to Massachusetts and she is
The first impression of Gogol on
Moushumi
is
interesting
as
he
remembers how he had not asked her on
phone how she looked, assuming that he
would identify her in the sea of whites as
Indians tend to stand out. But when he
feels that he may not have been really
sure of identifying her in the crowd so
easily, then we get the picture of
Moushumi as an Indian girl who has
assimilated into the American life just
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
like Gogol. It comes as a surprise to Gogol
that he feels attracted to Moushumi,
which he had not expected in the least bit
as he understands that, “ 

coping with isolation as a child. But in
America as a teenager, she does not find
herself at peace with herself and moves to
a place where she is a stranger –like
Gogol, who ventures into the American
     
life as Nikhil – and free to do things that
      
would otherwise be impossible to do
within her cultural setting. Just like
Gogol she vents out her frustration,
though in a different way. For her the
place that draws nostalgia is England,
which is ‘home’ for her. She speaks
yearningly of the past years she had
spent there. She confesses to Gogol that
she had hated moving to America and
that she had held on her British accent as
long as she could so that she could


       
       
    ( 199)
He observes that her British accent,
which had been a delight to all Bengali
children in the past, is gone and it is
ironical that he is shocked to hear her
American accent on phone - this is a sort
of stereotyping on his part- which he
never notices in his own life. The first
conversation they begin is about his
name and he realizes that she is the first
girl he has gone out with who is
acquainted with his past. As they figure
out their memories of their childhood she
gives her perception of Gogol, how he
thoroughly ignored her, and how she
resorted to her books. The indication
here is clear – though Gogol had Bengali
friends, he consciously distanced himself
from them to be with his American
friends, and Moushumi, on the other
hand, is doubly displaced – an Indian in
America and an England returned
Bengali into the American Bengali
community. She is an object of
fascination to the Bengali children with
whom she does not feel any connection
and befriends books. It is her way of
reclaim her identity. And the fact that
their parents were afraid of America than
England, probably because of its lack of
relation with India, makes her life in
America more difficult to endure as she is
expected to relieve her parents of the
constant fear associated with the new and
unknown place.
Moushumi’s parents strive hard to get
their daughter married to a Bengali; she
dreads the discussions her relatives
conduct about her wedding: “ 
        
      
       
       
( 213)
However, Moushumi’s persistence in
going against their wishes results in her
being a stranger in Indian and American
   
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
setting: “
      
      
       
parents never had, cooking Indian food
infrequently, occasionally craving for
Indian food they are habituated to from
childhood. When they visit Paris he feels
out of place, in contrast to Moushumi’s

ease with the place and people around
     
     
them. This strange feeling is not new to
him but it affects him nevertheless. He
sees himself as a misfit and understands
why Moushumi feels at home here: 
     
      
     
   
    
      
       
        

      

     
 (Lahiri 214) She rejects her
parents’ ideas for her in academics,
pursuing a double major in French:
“
     




     
( 214) Ignoring her parents’
protests, she moves to Paris with no
specific plans. In a new place, she resorts
to all sorts of activities without any
inhibitions,
expectations
and
commitment. It is in such adventurous
environment that she meets her would be
American fiancé, Graham, an American
expatriate like her – the reason that
would have pushed her to pursue a
relationship with him. But when she
hears his observations on India and its
culture being repressive, she breaks the
engagement.
Being married and no more the
bearers of family expectations, they start
living a life they had always wanted to
live – throwing parties which their

      
      
 ( 233) But there is a void in
their lives that cannot be filled so easily.
Moushumi’s friends Donald and Astrid
are part of her past and they are familiar
with her tragic break up with Graham
and yet she does not run away from
them, escaping the past. She, as Gogol
understands, wishes their lives to be like
that of theirs. This kind of yearning can
never lead to peace. And her devotion to
them is not understood by Gogol.
They talk endlessly about their past
and how much they know and don’t know
each other. He finds it easy to imagine
her attending her high school miserably,
her frequent trips to Calcutta, 
      
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
    ( 212) They
children, are caught between their
affiliation and detachment towards India
Nikhil it is different as she is drawn
towards him not just because of his looks
but the fact that he was neither a doctor
nor an engineer – the clichéd roles
Indians are expected to play in America
and
relate to each other’s past easily as they,
like many other second generation
the
and following the same path would have
misconceptions that they are subjected to
when they are assumed to be Greek,
Egyptian, Mexican. Quite naturally in
each other’s presence they slip Bengali
phrases into their conversation to
comment on another unfortunate diner’s
hair or shoe. They also share their
common need in the past to avoid any
sort of Indian association as she tells him
that for most of her life he was exactly
the sort of she had sought to avoid. And
America.
They
also
share
meant that he has accepted his parents’
path and their expectations – which
Moushumi had never done. The fact that
he changed his name from Gogol to
Nikhil appeals to her as she does not have
to take him as a person from her pastwhich she regrets- but someone new. And
his acquaintance is a welcome change in
her life at the time when she felt that she
was retreating to her former self and that
thought scares her and so 
Gogol does not feel insulted and even
feels flattered. Being a girl her family
admonishment is stronger than that of
Gogol as she had been admonished by

family not to marry an American. Like
Gogol she consciously goes against the
prescribed rules of her parents. But this
results in their slip into a constant state
of flux unable to live in peace with
themselves or any other people. They are
forced to be together by circumstances
but this does not help them in shedding
away their American past. They spend
their lives like vagabonds, with nothing
to hold them back and root them.
    
On the day of their first anniversary
she revisits her memory of Nikhil when
she had first seen him. We know that she
had never imagined herself being
attracted to an Indian man but with




       
     
” ( 250) And for her seeing
Gogol was therapeutic but as she is
caught in between two worlds and two
perspectives and ambitions she fails to
sustain her relationship with Gogol. Her
unfaithfulness is the result of this lack of
sense of belongingness to a place or
culture as she constantly isolates herself
from
her
Indian
and
American
background. This lands her in a very
critical situation as she is used to the life
of disloyalty and lack of commitment.
However, Moushumi does not share
Gogol’s conflict with identity in its
severity as she has learnt to severe her
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
ties with her past almost completely and
recreate herself in a completely new
place. So her marriage with Gogol makes
her feel the need to assure herself that
she still can be on her own without any
sort of dependency. So sometimes she
would visit restaurants and other places
alone as she needs this kind of assurance
that she can manage her life alone.
Slowly she starts regretting her decision
to marry Gogol as she had always resisted
her past and association with anything
Indian and so Gogol reminds of her
compliance, her resignation, her failure,
even. Her extramarital affair with
Dimitri is a means to attain liberation
from her relationship, a chance to restart
her life. This addiction of restarting her
life fails her marriage. She is appealed by
randomness of things and she is not an
organized person who would settle down.
Constant journey is her way of life.
Constant move is what appeals to her
that does not demand any kind of
commitment or responsibility to anything
or anyone. And then she chooses to be
disloyal to her husband and it comforts
her to think that she is the first person in
her family to have betrayed a husband.
       

      
    ( 266)
When there is a job offer in New York she
feels elated:    
      
       


 
        
 ( 254) The relationship
between Gogol and Moushumi ends with
the bitter reality emphasizing the fact
that individuals with broken identities
fail to complement each other. Though
the break up upsets Ashima, she is glad
that Gogol did not comply with the
absurd expectations that ruled her
generation.
As the narrative reaches the end we
find the characters coming to terms with
their selves and are more at peace with
their life. Ashima makes a conscious
choice of splitting her stay – 6 months in
India and 6 months in America. This
journeying between two places that have
shaped her life complements her name as
     
      
  ( 276) It is her
choice as opposed to her fate in the
beginning of her married life. She chooses
the places neither occupying the two
homes nor owning them. Her thoughts on
the move are worth noting as she 
   
      


      278)


     
     
International Journal of Academic Research
ISSN: 2348-7666
Vol.1 Issue-3(1), October-December, 2014
       

       
        
       


     

     
 ( 280) On the other
hand Gogol reconciles with his past as he
revisits the book presented by his father,
which he had ignored till then. The
transition is complete as he accepts
himself as Gogol.
References
Lahiri,
Jhumpa.
 .
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003.
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.
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